Sometimes it’s just your year. When infectiously optimistic young mayor Zohran Mamdani was elected last fall, there was a palpable vibe shift in New York. That’s not to say there’s a direct correlation between the New York Knicks being NBA champions and the era of buoyant positivity permeating the city — but it’s also not to say there’s not one. Other American cities will have their moment again soon. But 2026 is the year of New York. Someone get that memo to the Mets.
The Spurs Aren’t Going Anywhere
It may come across as condescending to tell professional athletes who were on the verge of a championship you’ll get ’em next time, but the San Antonio Spurs didn’t squander a golden opportunity — they dramatically overachieved. It is almost entirely unheard of for a young team to reach the Finals in its first serious run. The core of Victor Wembanyama (22 years old), Stephon Castle (21), and Dylan Harper (20) took their lumps along the way, and those lessons were painful. But this Spurs team will be competing for championships for many seasons to come.
The Thunder Are Not Inevitable
That’s why they play the games. Nine months ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder seemingly didn’t know how to lose, and the entire NBA media ecosystem was treating a repeat championship as a formality. Instead, the Thunder met their end against the Spurs in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. Oklahoma City will absolutely be heard from again — a return to the Finals next year wouldn’t be shocking. But in an era of parity, dynasties are best labeled in hindsight, not prematurely.
The Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs should remain atop the Western Conference for the foreseeable future.
LeBron Shouldn’t Retire Yet
A 41-year-old with a beard full of grey single-handedly backpacking his team to a first-round playoff victory sounds fantastical — unless that man is LeBron James. James has been asked about retirement relentlessly for several seasons, and the question is understandable given that his own son is now his teammate. But he is, quite frankly, still too damn good to hang it up. When the Los Angeles Lakers lost their top two scorers — All-NBA first-teamer Luka Dončić and guard Austin Reaves — the then-third option pulled his cape out of the closet and dragged Los Angeles through the first round by sheer force of will. Wherever James lands next season, it cannot be retirement.
It’s a 48-Minute Game
Every player at every level has heard the same refrain: we gotta play all 48. It’s rare that playing 46 or 47 minutes of high-level basketball comes back to bite a team — anywhere besides the NBA playoffs. The Knicks are that fact personified, clawing back from down 29 points in the second half of Game 4 to complete the largest comeback in NBA Finals history. Great, connected, fearless teams know it’s never over. As captain Jalen Brunson put it after the Game 4 comeback:
“Chipping away.”
Steph Needs Help
Stephen Curry is still really, really good — and watching him flame out in the play-in or, at best, the first round year after year is a waste of that talent. The 2022 championship feels like a distant memory. Maybe the answer is a 2024 Olympics-style reunion with old rival LeBron James. Maybe the long-rumored Giannis Antetokounmpo scenario somehow materializes. The Golden State Warriors are running short on time. They need solutions quickly. Otherwise, the flashes of brilliance Curry still delivers every spring will become increasingly fleeting, until one day they’re gone.
The Twitter DMs Were Real
Is there concrete proof that the controversial, mean — and, occasionally hilarious — Twitter DMs leaked earlier this season came from Kevin Durant? Not exactly. But the evidence is mounting. The most damning exhibit was the first round, where Durant‘s Houston Rockets were bounced by a Lakers squad relying on meaningful postseason minutes from both LeBron James Sr. and junior. Death by Luke Kennard is a scathing indictment all by itself. The Rockets were a walking reminder that talent and chemistry are not the same thing — discombobulated and unmoored with or without Durant in the lineup, though they often seemed to be having considerably more fun when he wasn’t.
The Hawks Will Be Great Next Season
The Knicks won 16 of 19 games during their march to the title, but two of those three losses came in the first three games of the opening round against a feisty Atlanta Hawks team that finally moved on from the Trae Young experiment and committed to the future in Jalen Johnson and his Most Improved Player running mate Nickeil Alexander-Walker. In exchange for Young, Atlanta landed the perfect veteran steward in CJ McCollum — the only player in the entire postseason to consistently make the Knicks look mortal. Add in the athleticism, depth, and the No. 8 pick courtesy of the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Hawks enter next season with a genuine puncher’s chance in what promises to be a fascinating Eastern Conference.
Read also: Knicks Capture First NBA Championship in 53 Years After Brunson Drops 45 in Game 5 Win Over Spurs
Philly Need to Turn the Page
For a brief moment around the start of the second round, the stars appeared to finally be aligning for the Philadelphia 76ers. Joel Embiid looked like an MVP candidate again. Paul George didn’t look like a walking contractual albatross. Everything was clicking in a way that seemed to validate the grand vision Daryl Morey had spent years chasing. Then the wheels came off. Morey is out of a job, and the underlying reality has reasserted itself. The path forward for Philadelphia probably doesn’t involve squeezing one more run out of Embiid and George. It involves turning the page and building around Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe instead.
The Celtics Should Shake It Up
Several coaches will be on the hot seat this summer. Joe Mazzulla, fresh off a Coach of the Year award, probably won’t be one of them — but he showed serious warts in these playoffs, and in last year’s too, with his apparent unwillingness to stray from a three-point-heavy dogma even when circumstances demanded it. The pithy press conference quotes are cute. They become less charming when your team keeps running aground on the same shoals every postseason. Beyond tactical adjustments, the Boston Celtics face a major personnel decision. Jaylen Brown, the mercurial star who appeared to relish his months-long stint as the team’s No. 1 option, may never carry more trade value than he does right now. Sell high on Brown, and use the return to retool both the roster and the philosophy underpinning it.
The Timberwolves Lost the Trade
There was a time when the blockbuster deal sending Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Karl-Anthony Towns looked like a genuine win-win. That debate is now settled. Randle once again proved more liability than asset when games mattered most, while DiVincenzo will spend most — if not all — of next season recovering from an Achilles tear. Towns, meanwhile, was indispensable during the Knicks‘ march to the championship. He was particularly brilliant in Games 1 and 2 of the Finals, helping set the tone for a dominant series victory and validating the gamble New York made when it acquired him.
Don’t Make Too Much — or Too Little — of the Regular Season
Somewhere between the NBA regular season is irrelevant and the NBA regular season is gospel lies a more nuanced truth: there is plenty to be gleaned from the six months between October and April, but none of it is definitive. The Detroit Pistons steamrolled the Eastern Conference for much of the regular season while carrying glaring playoff-specific flaws obvious to anyone looking closely. The Knicks faced the opposite problem — a team that wasn’t blowing the doors off opponents during the 82-game marathon because it was clearly ironing out wrinkles in preparation for the 16-game sprint. The signs were there, not least when they captured the NBA Cup in December. On the other side sat the Spurs, whose regular-season dominance over the Thunder turned out to be a preview, not a curiosity. When San Antonio knocked Oklahoma City out in the conference finals, the warning signs had been visible for months. Take lessons from the regular season. Just don’t mistake them for prophecy.
Don’t Trade for James Harden
Every few years, a different NBA front office succumbs to a kind of selective amnesia. Executives are charmed by James Harden‘s remarkably consistent regular-season production and convince themselves that this time will be different. They suppress the memory of the playoff shortcomings that have followed him throughout his career until, inevitably, those memories come flooding back. Then comes the disappointment. Then the trade request. Then the wheel spins again. The Cleveland Cavaliers became the latest franchise to learn the same lesson as so many before them: when the calendar turns to April, May, and June, Harden simply cannot be treated as a dependable No. 1 option.
A Savvy Front Office Is Paramount
The three best teams in the playoff field — the Thunder, the Spurs, and the Knicks — shared one defining trait: smart, shrewd front offices. Their intelligence manifested differently. Oklahoma City and San Antonio built largely through the draft. New York took an aggressive path, assembling its core through trades and free agency. All three excelled at the same fundamental task: roster construction. You may not have the Thunder‘s depth, the Spurs‘ lottery fortune, or the culture and sheer stubborn resilience that powered the Knicks to a championship. But putting smart people in charge is one of the few competitive advantages available to every franchise.
You Can Win with a Small Guard
Becky Hammon is a brilliant basketball mind and a good coach — and, unfortunately, the source of a quote that will live in infamy.
“If your best player is small, you’re not winning,”
Hammon said in 2023, arguing that Brunson, listed at 6ft 2in, could never be a true No. 1 option on a championship team. Given that Brunson now holds both an Eastern Conference Finals MVP and an NBA Finals MVP trophy, the take did not age well. The NBA teaches the same lesson over and over, and this season hammered it home more forcefully than most: there is no single blueprint for superstardom. Brunson has flaws — plenty of them. He is also one of the most outrageously clutch players the league has ever seen. The goal isn’t to find a flawless demigod molded in the image of LeBron James or Michael Jordan. The goal is to find a truly great player capable of leading a locker room and elevating teammates, then intelligently build a roster that amplifies his strengths. The Knicks‘ radio broadcaster Tyler Murray captured it perfectly in his final call of the season: “The 2026 New York Knicks will forever be remembered as the team that proved no lead is too big, and no guard is too small.”
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